Open the cupboard beneath the stove in an Italian family kitchen and there it may be, pushed behind the newer pans: a Lagostina pot with fine scratches crossing its steel and a lid that has been lifted through years of Sunday broth and risotto.
Its exact age may even be a family argument: bought for a wedding, says one person; no, it was already there, insists another. Cookware that survives this long becomes part of the household furniture, noticed mainly when someone reaches for it again, and Lagostina has made its name in that ordinary, demanding test since 1901.
